I bought a fiberglass flat hood for my 78 Fairmont race car many years ago, from US Body Source, and I was very impressed with the quality of the hood. It was a lift off hood, and I never did use it, as I like having the stock hood hinges, plus when I weighed the stock steel hood to a factory hood, I didn`t think the 7 pounds was worth the effort. Keep in mind that the Fairmont was Fords first attempt at building lightweight production cars, so the factory hood on a Fairmont is constructed much lighter than an earlier car. (No inner panel, just a outer frame with a thin brace in the center, factory lightening holes and slots. ) The guy that I did sell the US Body hood to years ago, said it fit very well and required minimal work before painting. For anything other than a race car, I would rather spend a reasonable amount of $$$ on original Ford sheetmetal. Having owned 2 69 Fairlane Cobras , it seems that on the factory hoods, its fairly common to find a long crack in the raised peak that runs down the center of the hood. Both my hoods were cracked about 3" long, near the front of the hood. Since both my Cobras were R code cars, I wonder if the combination of having a large hole in the middle of the hood, combined with the aerodynamic lifting forces of the hood scoop at higher speeds possibly was a contributing factor over time, to the stresses on the hood. Or possibly the stamping process stretched the steel too thin. Considering 68-9 Fairlanes and Torinos are still not considered super valuable, $1000. for a stock flat hood does seem really steep.
